The future of Amtrak is up to us

[CHamilton]

Shame on the Amtrak management for going public with their short (and short-sighted) corridor plans just a couple of days after Joe Boardman's demise. See 1@Thirdrail7[/USER]'s link here:



It's ironic that Gardner talks about Millennials when these plans are a slap in the face to those who care about climate change, and who have made it clear that they want more, not less, environmentally-friendly transportation options.

Amtrak's management and board don't seem to care about the future. So it will be up to us to make sure that Congress changes that direction. Please join me in DC on April 2 to talk to our elected representatives. https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/events/rpa-spring-2019-washington-dc-advocacy-summit-day-on-the-hill/

 

[neroden]

I'm going to try to make it, but no promises.

It's starting to become very clear to me that Gardner is the one responsible for spreading the fraudulent route accounting numbers, the fraudulent claims about so-called long-distance train costs, the fraudulent claims about "what millennials want", and the demented attacks on productive intercity trains.  I think he's leading Mr. Anderson around by the nose.  Mr. Anderson is making enemies in Congress; how can we make him, and them, aware that Mr. Gardner needs to be removed immediately?  Otherwise I fear Mr Anderson will be tossed out and Mr. Gardner will manipulate the next Amtrak CEO just like he's manipulating Mr. Anderson -- with fraudulent, faked-up numbers.

 

[jis]

The prognosis currently is that unless something gives at the Amtrak Board, Gardner will most likely be the next CEO. So he won’t need to lead anyone else around. He can just do it on his own. Sad.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Sad News indeed!

 

[neroden]

Hit your Congressmen and Congresswomen with letters about:
(a) the importance of the so-called long-distance trains to you and your family and friends (I always emphasize the disabled/can't fly aspect),
and (b) the fact that Amtrak management is lying to them about the costs of the routes, and they're much cheaper to operate than Amtrak pretends (cite the RPA white paper).

If enough members of Congress get this dual message, this is enough to neuter Gardner.

 

[sttom]

But we can't improve Amtrak cause that might lead to ANY changes to the long distance routes, more icky corridor trains and god forbid the end of the 750 mile rule! Any of those would be horrible!

I'm being sarcastic ^ but it doesn't seem like people who advocate for "improved" Amtrak service don't really want to do much to improve Amtrak, other than making the Cardinal and Sunset Limited daily trains. As much as people like to condescendingly say "leave it to the states" that has lead to basically nothing. in a lot of states and some being outright hostile to rail in general.

Short of coming up with a national policy for Amtrak on the same level as the highways, best case we get is keeping Amtrak from dying if the "advocates" get their way. Sorry if I am a downer, but rail forums don't seem to be filled with people who want to see improvements, but to dump on those that do a large part of the time.

 

[Rover]

It's depressing really. There's just too much wrong.